From: "Camron Hastings" Subject: 3.5-meter Obs Log 980531 Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 05:59:27 -0600 WEDNESDAY, MAY 31st, 1998 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY 3.5-Meter Observing Log ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Turner C. Hastings DIS 5/31 21:45 22:25 Cooray A. Cooray GRIMII* 5/31-6/1 22:25 01:10 Lutz J. Lutz DIS 6/01 01:10 04:17 * GRIM was requested on the night of the observation, DIS was original instrument on schedule. A.Cooray agreed to the loss of 15 minutes of instrument switch time to mount GRIM, and 15 minutes to dismount GRIM and remount DIS for the next observer, J.Lutz. INST SCHEDULED OBS WEATH EQUIP DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PU01/O 21:45 22:25 - .7 0 - 0 - 0 0 - UC06/R 22:25 01:10 - 2.25 0 - 0 - 0 0 - WS02/R 01:10 04:17 3.1 - 0 - 0 - 0 0 - (note: times listed include instrument change time) ACTIVITY LOG Tonight I ran the standard lens monitoring program and had time to get good obs on the first two objects. This was the last day for the old lens program, and a new one is in place to start 6/1/98. Cooray requested GRIM, a change from the schedule, and the changeout ran smoothly, no problems. We had DIS back on in time for Julie's run. It should be mentioned that the pointing was exceptionally precise this evening. Could this be due in part to the new rotator parts and work? Right on the money more often than not! Only two other items seem mentionable. One, that the slit viewer images seemed more out of focus than the seeing would lead us to believe. Two, while imaging with DIS, I noticed that there was a corner of the image missing. I used the slitviewer to try and see if anything was obstructing the empty mask port, and it seemed so. I physically checked the DISmask wheel, and found a small piece of tape from one of the masks next to it obstructing and it was removed. This is not necessarily the most interesting story, but while the wheel was out, I noticed a small nick on the rotating metal shutter. It does not seem to be rubbing against anything. Oh wait! Right before we closed too! Are you still reading this? Anyway, it seems that near the end of the night the telescope had trouble making minor offsets to keep a star in the slit. Dawn was arriving quickly, so we abandoned any further attempts to fix it and closed for lamp cals. Then, suddenly, without warning, or reason, the MAC crashed. Restarted with no problem though. Sincerely, Camron Hastings P.S. Problem reports filed! :) OBSERVER COMMENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------- I imaged several new candidate gravitational lenses in the MIT-Green Bank-VLA radio survey and monitored 2 lenses for time delay observations. Images were good quality with very good seeing (0.8"). I didn't encounter any problems during the run tonight. -Asantha Cooray ------------------------------------------------------------------- I've had smoother nights! Sky conditions were good. I had some incomprehensible problem in viewing disslit images here....I just saw a small part of the field. Never did understand that one. Made it hard to identify objects in crowded Milky Way fields. However, we did get some central star observations. Unfortunately the telescope misbehaved at the end of the night. I couldn't get a standard star observation. -J.Lutz ------------------------------------------------------------------- FOCUS LOG MAY 31st, 1998 Best Telescope Temp Wind Seeing Time Instr Focus Az El Air/Truss Dir MPH filter FWHM " ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 21:04 DIS -350/6585 -38 54 16.5/19.0 206 15 r 1.10" 22:53 GRIM -250/6655 139 66 16.2/17.0 256 8.7 J .83" 23:01 DIS -225/6741 72 27 15.6/17.0 246 8.7 r 1.60" 02:01 DIS -200/6692 180 39 16.1/16.3 252 10.3 r 1.14" *The first temp is air, the second is truss, both in degrees Celsius WEATHER LOG MAY 31st, 1998 Wind Time Temp-F Dewp-F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16:01 74 11 17 235 (SW) 990 Clear None 17:01 75 12 11 232 (SW) 910 Clear None 18:01 72 13 17 242 (WSW) 804 Clear None 19:01 69 12 14 234 (SW) 710 Clear None 20:01 62 10 12 216 (SW) 772 Clear None 21:01 62 9 14 198 (SSW) 862 Clear None 22:01 62 11 11 199 (SSW) 946 Clear None 23:01 61 9 10 234 (SW) 875 Clear None 00:01 62 8 10 232 (SW) 888 Clear None 01:01 62 9 10 237 (WSW) 986 Clear None 02:01 61 12 6 259 (W) 921 Clear None 03:01 62 12 9 254 (WSW) 1121 Clear None 04:01 62 10 12 270 (W) 828 Clear None 05:01 60 10 8 270 (W) 480 Clear None note: the wind was coming from the azimuth listed. The convention used is north=0 degrees, east=90 degrees. The dust count is for the particles > 1 micron per 0.1 cu.ft. TELESCOPE STATUS Primary, secondary, and tertiary mirrors in place and collimated. Primary support system operational. Mirror ventilation system in place. Telescope drives operational. Current Remark version: 2.41a Current guide software version: GIm Ctrl v3.0b 15.out -Camron Hastings & Tia Hoyes